Asian stocks were mixed despite a rebound on Wall Street overnight as economic fears surrounding the Chinese coronavirus have not eased, despite some better than expected US numbers. Currency markets are still relatively tight with the USD advancing against most except the Aussie which has blipped higher in anticipation of the upcoming Fed meeting. Bitcoin has broken out above the $9000 mark:
Meanwhile, the Hang Seng Index returned to trade and gapped over 2% lower, finishing the session down 2.5% at 27232 points, with most of the Xmas rally wiped out due to this big breakdown in confidence:
Japanese share markets were the best in the region, all due to a minor selloff in Yen throughout the session and catchup buying with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.6% higher to 23360 points, still below the key 24000 point resistance level. The USDJPY pair broke out of its trading range but is not making any further gains, hovering just above the 109 handle going into the City open and now in a mild retracement:
The ASX200 finished back above 7000 points as FOMO and bottom picking became the order of the day, rising 0.5% to be at 7033 points. The Australian dollar barely lifted off the mat to be at the 67.70 level, still in a dominant downtrend going into the RBA meeting:
Both S&P and Eurostoxx futures are lifting, advancing after their rebound overnight with the four hourly chart of the S&P500 showing a minor push back to trailing overhead resistance at the 3300 point level. This bounceback is to be expected, but could run out of puff soon:
The economic calendar will be dominated by the Federal Reserve meeting tonight with expectations of no change in rates runnign at nearly 90% odds, the technical underpinning might get a wobble. Watch closely – or watch the Senate impeachment trial for the usual giggles.